Infineon goes to GloFo for embedded flash

LONDON – Infineon Technologies AG (Munich, Germany) has announced that it has entered into an agreement with Globalfoundries Inc. (Milpitas, Calif.) for the joint development and production of 40-nm embedded flash process.

The move is based on an Infineon-developed embedded flash memory cell and the manufacture of automotive and security microcontrollers using 40-nm minimum dimensions for Infineon by Globalfoundries.

Qualification of the manufacturing process by Infineon and of initial security MCUs is planned to happen in the second half of 2015. The start of automotive MCU production is even later not being scheduled to start until the first half of 2017.

Production of next-generation 40-nm eFlash MCUs will start in Singapore with a subsequent transfer to Globalfoundries' site in Dresden, Germany.

Infineon is developing 40-nm embedded flash technology exclusively with Globalfoundries and the collaboration is based on an established development and manufacturing relationship, including CMOS-based low-power mobile phone products in 65-nm technology, a spokesperson for Globalfoundries said.

"We trust in Globalfoundries with their excellent manufacturing background and sites on different continents to fulfill Infineon's stringent quality, infrastructure security and business continuity requirements," said Arunjai Mittal, member of the management board of Infineon, in a statement.